The Denver & Colorado Tourism Hall of Fame will add three inductees to its hallowed hall during the Tourism Hall of Fame dinner March 2 at the Seawell Grand Ballroom in the Denver Performing Arts Complex.
The 2010 inductees are former Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter, Denver’s dance legend Cleo Parker Robinson, and the 20-year leader of the Colorado Springs convention bureau, Terry Sullivan.
The Tourism Hall of Fame is the highest award for Denver and Colorado’s travel industry, which hosted 12.1 million overnight visitors in 2009, generating spending of more than $2.9 billion. The industry supports more than 50,000 jobs in the metro area and 138,000 jobs statewide.
The dinner is a fundraiser for the Visit Denver Foundation, which since 2000 has given out nearly $300,000 in scholarships to 134 students pursuing higher education in the fields of tourism and hospitality.
Tickets: Keely Brunel, 303-571-9405 or kbrunel@visitdenver.com.
Speaking of tourism . . .
The new leadership of Colorado’s tourism industry and its members will gather for Tourism Day at the state Capitol at 9 a.m. Monday. The annual event is meant to raise awareness of the positive impact of tourism in Colorado.
Topics include recent trends in the tourism industry, tourism’s positive impact on the state’s tax base and what the future holds for the industry.
Speakers include former state Sen. Al White, the newly appointed director of the Colorado Tourism Office; Sen. Brandon Shaffer, D-Longmont, president of the Colorado Senate; Sen. Mary Hodge, D-Brighton; Rep. Frank McNulty, R-Highlands Ranch, speaker of the House of Representatives; and Bryan Bedford, chief executive of Frontier Airlines.
Good golf.
Plano, Texas-based Adams Golf submitted the winning bid of $1.5 million and a total purchase cost of $1.65 million (including administration fees) to acquire Denver-based Progear Holdings, makers of the Yes! Golf patented C-Groove Putters, from a U.S. Bankruptcy Court auction Tuesday.
Financial statements from Yes! Golf showed that the company’s revenues were about $10.2 million in 2007 and roughly $2.4 million in 2010.
The purchase includes acquisition of all of Yes! Golf’s patented putter technology designs, registered trademarks, existing inventory and capital equipment. The firm will move to Adams Golf headquarters in Plano.
I reported in December that Pro gear Holdings, run by former president and chief executive Francis Ricci, had filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
Catering queen gives up crown.
Catering-company veteran Syd Sexton is leaving Gourmet Fine Catering, where she is part owner, to spearhead catering sales and strategic business development for the Ritz-Carlton Denver and the Ritz-Carlton Bachelor Gulch.
Prior to starting Alex Brooks Fine Catering in 1996, Sexton worked in the hotel industry for 20 years. In 2002, Alex Brooks merged with Gourmet Alternative, owned by Darby Donohue and Kent Kidwell, and formed Gourmet Fine Catering.
Eavesdropping
at a wine dinner at Table 6: “How does a billionaire become a millionaire? He buys a vineyard.”
Penny Parker’s column appears Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday. Listen to her on the Caplis and Silverman radio show between 4 and 5 p.m. Fridays on KHOW-AM 630. Call her at 303-954-5224 or e-mail pparker@denverpost.com.
